I'm so glad English is the only language in the world because otherwise that keyboard would be beyond stupid. I'm also happy that QWERTY typing is the only way to do it or else that keyboard would be beyond stupid./Beyond stupid.//Somewhere over there.

Tr0mBoNe:I spray painted my keyboard black when I was in High School to make me learn to type by feel.

I was a very interesting child.

*internet high-five* I used white fingernail polish. Not the best security ever, but quite effective against certain types. Drove my mother up the wall. ("You've ruined that keyboard. Why would you do that? Now no one can use it." Yeah, no one but me.) Touch typists still exist, but we're rare enough that most people boggle at my keyboard. "How do you use it?" is the most common response. Um, much like a regular keyboard, you push a button, and the corresponding character appears on the screen.

amo:Touch typists still exist, but we're rare enough that most people boggle at my keyboard.

wtf are you talking about? touch typing is more prevalent now than ever, unless your definition only includes people who feel the need to alert the world to their amazing ability to type without looking at a keyboard by painting keys.

thomps:amo: Touch typists still exist, but we're rare enough that most people boggle at my keyboard.

wtf are you talking about? touch typing is more prevalent now than ever, unless your definition only includes people who feel the need to alert the world to their amazing ability to type without looking at a keyboard by painting keys.

hmm. i think that although a lot of people are capable of touch typing, that they currently rely quite a bit on the markings on the keyboard, and would have to take some time to adjust to it.

ekdikeo4:thomps: amo: Touch typists still exist, but we're rare enough that most people boggle at my keyboard.

wtf are you talking about? touch typing is more prevalent now than ever, unless your definition only includes people who feel the need to alert the world to their amazing ability to type without looking at a keyboard by painting keys.

hmm. i think that although a lot of people are capable of touch typing, that they currently rely quite a bit on the markings on the keyboard, and would have to take some time to adjust to it.

i would venture to guess that most people under the age of 30 that grew up with computers could type with ease without markings (aside from the bumps on the f and j keys, i suppose). typing has become a primary means of communication as opposed to something you learn in a middle school class and then forget.

thomps:wtf are you talking about? touch typing is more prevalent now than ever, unless your definition only includes people who feel the need to alert the world to their amazing ability to type without looking at a keyboard by painting keys.

You assume too much. I felt no need to alert the world. My keyboard then never left the house, and neither does the current one. But people who came over would notice it and comment, and they still do. I only brought it up here because this is a discussion about blank keyboards.

thomps:hmm. i think that although a lot of people are capable of touch typing, that they currently rely quite a bit on the markings on the keyboard, and would have to take some time to adjust to it.

i would venture to guess that most people under the age of 30 that grew up with computers could type with ease without markings (aside from the bumps on the f and j keys, i suppose). typing has become a primary means of communication as opposed to something you learn in a middle school class and then forget.

I suspect most people under the age of 30 now use touch screens most often, which by definition can't teach you to touch type. If touch typists were more common, fewer people would boggle at a blank keyboard.

amo:I suspect most people under the age of 30 now use touch screens most often, which by definition can't teach you to touch type. If touch typists were more common, fewer people would boggle at a blank keyboard.

touch screens, as a mainstream interface, are like 5 years old. my assumption is that people boggle at your keyboard in the same way they boggle at any other conversation piece, or you have a non-representative sample hanging out in your house.

DjangoStonereaver:Meh. I can type 75WPM (when I'm in practice), and even I need to look at the key labels fairly often.

I prefer Northgate or original IBM PC or PC/AT keyboards, and computers with PS/2 connectors. All arebecoming much harder to find.

I need to look at the keyboard from time to time, but the lack of labels wouldn't hurt much, it is more that because I don't touch type and just hold my hands over the keyboard, I can get "misaligned". Some of the special characters might be a bit more problematic, although being a programmer I use a lot of them fairly regularly - and remoting in to clients systems around the world on a fairly regular basis, the lack of labels on the keyboard could actually be beneficial as a number of special symbols move around in different keyboard layouts so you have to go from memory and ignore the keyboard anyway.

/as has been noted you can have the labels anyway, so the whole issue is fairly moot

thomps:amo: I suspect most people under the age of 30 now use touch screens most often, which by definition can't teach you to touch type. If touch typists were more common, fewer people would boggle at a blank keyboard.

touch screens, as a mainstream interface, are like 5 years old. my assumption is that people boggle at your keyboard in the same way they boggle at any other conversation piece, or you have a non-representative sample hanging out in your house.

Even most of the new college grads I worked with in office jobs in the past couple years, who have had QWERTY keyboards at their disposal since childhood, couldn't touch type. Call that a non-representative sample if you'd like, but somehow I doubt it. I'm not saying they can't type, but if you look down at your hands/keyboard at all, you're not a touch typist.

thomps:ekdikeo4: thomps: amo: Touch typists still exist, but we're rare enough that most people boggle at my keyboard.

wtf are you talking about? touch typing is more prevalent now than ever, unless your definition only includes people who feel the need to alert the world to their amazing ability to type without looking at a keyboard by painting keys.

hmm. i think that although a lot of people are capable of touch typing, that they currently rely quite a bit on the markings on the keyboard, and would have to take some time to adjust to it.

i would venture to guess that most people under the age of 30 that grew up with computers could type with ease without markings (aside from the bumps on the f and j keys, i suppose). typing has become a primary means of communication as opposed to something you learn in a middle school class and then forget.

I think you're your confusing comfort with using the interface with skill in using it. Even for people whogrew up with computer, most people need to actually think about what they're entering, and that takesthought that slows down the mechanical process of entry. For me, a touch typist is someone who ispracticed enough that they can think about other things and form whole words, rather than one letterat a time.

The main reason I can type as fast as I do is that I took a full year of professional typing classes inhigh school (if you have ever seen my handwriting you'll know why), but what really pushed me into thestratosphere is the 3 years I was a data entry clerk. Though we weren't paid by the keystroke, we werejudged on how much work we got done in a shift, and it got to the point where everyone in my officewas able to have very serious conversations while we were all clacking away. I think a couple of timesmy key speed came close to 100WPM toward the end of my time there.

I have the older version of this keyboard at home and it is a really nice keyboard. Each fingers keys have different weights so it takes the same amount of effort. Like the pinky is really light since it's the weakest finger but the space bar is heavier. It is a great keyboard to learn how to type faster.

amo:Even most of the new college grads I worked with in office jobs in the past couple years, who have had QWERTY keyboards at their disposal since childhood, couldn't touch type. Call that a non-representative sample if you'd like, but somehow I doubt it. I'm not saying they can't type, but if you look down at your hands/keyboard at all, you're not a touch typist.

i guess my point is that since more people use keyboards on a daily basis now than ever before, it makes sense that there would be more people who have mastered typing on a keyboard than ever before.

DjangoStonereaver:I think a couple of timesmy key speed came close to 100WPM toward the end of my time there.

One other footnote: even though it was a tough slog (I really hated my typing class, but that was mostlybecause of the old battle axe of a teacher I had), after all this time I have found that I really enjoy thephysical act of typing because I can sometimes type faster than I can think. Since I have pretensions atbeing a writer someday, and have to write often for my job, I used to have to do my drafts in longhand andthen transcribe them, but now I can just compose at the keyboard. When I'm on a roll, time just slips awaylike it would if I were playing an engrossing video game (which, I suppose, I sort of am), and I get a feelingthat I imagine is not dissimilar to that which a concert pianist or other type of musician who is adept at theirinstrument gets; a feeling of oneness with one's instruments.

I have my preferred keyboard and mouse that I bring with me to work, since I spend so much time attached to them, I value ergonomics, comfort and speed, and like eyeglasses, saving a couple of bucks is a false economy.

That said, I've been eyeing some fancy steampunky decorative keyboards an artist makes... Damn that would be pretty to have in front of me all day. Sigh...

After losing two G15s in six months (their solder joints are crap and Logitech's "solution" was to offer me a voucher to buy a third, fark that) I bought a Das Keyboard and it is sexual sex in qwerty form.

thomps:DjangoStonereaver: I think a couple of timesmy key speed came close to 100WPM toward the end of my time there.

that is insane.

And I was actually one of the slower operators. The fact that I type in short bursts probably has savedme from carpal tunnel, but it also keeps my overall speed lower than it might be (which is a fine trade off).

It was for a magazine subscription processing service on an OOOOOLLLLLDDDDD (even by mid 1980sstandards) Unisys mainframe. We had thousands, if not tens of thousands, of slips of paper to enter inan 8 hour shift, so speed and accuracy was the order of the day. Its the kind of stuff that, these days,would either be done with an OCR scanner or just people going to a website and doing it themselves.

It was actually rather interesting: we processed stuff for a myriad of trade magazines (FROZEN FOODMONTHLY was one), but also for interesting publications like INTERVIEW and BYTE (I processsubscripsions for both Gene Roddenberry and Arthur C. Clark and saved their home addresses, thoughI never had the guts to actually write to them).

Some people like to type by feel. I'm the other way, I type by looking at the keyboard and not at the screen. I tend to type much faster. Admittedly you have to go back and correct the mistakes you make, but I edit everything I type i case I've made a mandrake.

DjangoStonereaver:It was actually rather interesting: we processed stuff for a myriad of trade magazines (FROZEN FOODMONTHLY was one), but also for interesting publications like INTERVIEW and BYTE (I processsubscripsions for both Gene Roddenberry and Arthur C. Clark and saved their home addresses, thoughI never had the guts to actually write to them).

I learned to touch type on an IBM Selectric II, I was so fast that when I first started typing on an Original IBM PC the computer would still be displaying letters on the screen when I finished typing.